Literary Analysis

Not enough time to read the classics? We've stripped away the prose, the endless descriptions, and the tangential musings, leaving you with the raw, unfiltered plots and key takeaways. In short, this book is for those who want to sound well-read without dedicating years to reading. Consider it your literary Rosetta Stone, translating the classics into something manageable for your hectic schedule. Discover the stories that shaped the world, one plot at a time.

The Gospel according to John has always been recognized as different from the "synoptic" accounts of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. But what explains the difference? In this new translation and verse-by-verse commentary, Michael Pakaluk suggests an answer and unlocks a 2,000-year-old mystery. Mary's Voice in the Gospel According to John reveals the subtle but powerful influence of the mother of Jesus on the fourth Gospel.

Leo Tolstoy's classic story of doomed love is one of the most admired novels in world literature. Generations of readers have been enthralled by his magnificent heroine, the unhappily married Anna Karenina, and her tragic affair with dashing Count Vronsky.

Discover the timeless tale of love, sin, and redemption with "The Scarlet Letter: Adapted for Modern Readers." This refreshed edition presents Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic through a contemporary lens, featuring clean formatting, updated typography, and lightly clarified language. Perfect for today's audience, it offers an easier yet authentic reading experience, making Hawthorne's intricate prose and profound themes more accessible without losing the original's depth and nuance. Set against the rigid backdrop of 17th-century Puritan New England, this novel explores themes of guilt, ...

Beginning Theory has been helping students navigate through the thickets of literary and cultural theory for over two decades. This new and expanded fourth edition continues to offer listeners the best single-volume introduction to the field. The bewildering variety of approaches, theorists and technical language is lucidly and expertly unravelled.

A rigorous critique of prominent Western structuralist and sociological approaches to the novel, particularly those of George Lukács, Lucien Goldmann, Alan Swingewood, and Michel Zeraffa, arguing for a more classical materialist understanding of the genre's origins and evolution. The book delves into the genesis of the novel, tracing its rise to the 18th-century English bourgeoisie, characterizing it as the "epic of bourgeoisie." Sharma discusses how early novelists like Defoe, Richardson, and Fielding reflected and legitimized the values of an emerging capitalist class through realism and...

Dive into the enchanting world of Celtic literature with the mesmerizing eBook, "Exploring the Celtic Tapestry"! This captivating journey will take you through time and across the European landscape, unveiling the interwoven richness of Celtic storytelling and its profound impact on the global literary scene. Embark on an adventure that begins with an introduction to Celtic literature and its European contexts, then traverses through early Irish literature, the Welsh bardic tradition, Scottish poetry, and the evolution of English literary heritage in the Celtic context. Along the way, ...

Transforming Harry: The Adaptation of Harry Potter in the Transmedia Age is an edited volume of eight essays that look at how the cinematic versions of the seven Harry Potter novels represent an unprecedented cultural event in the history of cinematic adaptation.

In 1927, as a twenty-three-year-old postgraduate scholar in Paris, Joseph Campbell first encountered James Joyce’s Ulysses. Known for being praised and for kicking up controversy (including an obscenity trial in the United States in 1920), the novel left Campbell both intrigued and confused, as it had many others. Because he was in Paris, he was able to visit the Shakespeare & Company bookstore - the outpost of the original publisher of Ulysses, Sylvia Beach. She gave him “clues” for reading Ulysses, and that, Campbell attested, changed his career.

Explore the fascinating link between gender stereotypes in fairy tales and real-world life with Only Prince Charming Gets to Break the Rules: Gender and Rule Violation in Fairy Tales and Life. This thought-provoking book carefully analyzes 200 folktales and fairy tales from around the world, uncovering a universal disparity in how male and female characters are punished for breaking the rules. Through a blend of thorough research and literary investigation, the book sheds light on how these stereotypes affect our families, politics, and education. A powerful feminist critique of social ...

Rescuing the subject from dry abstractions, Clare Connors focuses on the real questions that emerge when we read and study literature - such as how we find meaning and how literature relates to its historical context - before exploring the response of theorists. Using selections from works including poetry by Christina Rossetti and Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain, Connors unites theory with practice, revealing how enjoyable it is to think about reading.

How to Do Discourse Analysis provides a comprehensive toolkit for conducting discourse analysis, offering twenty-six practical tools to examine how language is used to construct meaning, enact identities, and shape social realities. Written by renowned linguist James Paul Gee, it introduces key concepts like situated meanings, social languages, and discourses, showing how language both reflects and creates social contexts.

Unique among books that examine the bible as literature, this brilliantly compact introduction offers an intriguing double-edged look at this universal text - a religiously informed literary analysis. The book first explores the major sections of the New Testament - the gospels, Paul's letters, and Revelation - as individual literary documents. Keefer shows how, in such familiar stories as the parable of the Good Samaritan, a literary analysis can uncover an unexpected complexity to what seems a simple, straightforward tale.

Literary Theory for Robots reveals the hidden history of modern machine intelligence, taking listeners on a spellbinding journey from medieval Arabic philosophy to visions of a universal language, past Hollywood fiction factories, and missile defense systems trained on Russian folktales. In this provocative reflection on the shared pasts of literature and computer science, former Microsoft engineer and professor of comparative literature Dennis Yi Tenen provides crucial context for recent developments in AI, which holds important lessons for the future of humans living with smart technology.

Know the classics. Not by name. Not by reputation. But for real. I Know My Classics! – The Red Spine Edition – Volume One: The Essentials is your definitive literary companion to 25 of the most enduring and emotionally resonant books ever written. This is not a collection of summaries or academic analysis. It’s a fully immersive guide—curated for curious, passionate readers who want more than a checklist. For every title, you’ll find a deeply written editorial journey, including: • A personal note from the Curator • An insightful “About the Author” profile • 10 rich ...

"The Tragedy of Macbeth" is a play written by William Shakespeare. Set mainly in Scotland, the play illustrates the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power for its own sake. The play was most likely written during the reign of James I, who had been James VI of Scotland before he succeeded to the English throne in 1603. James was a patron of Shakespeare's acting company and of all the plays Shakespeare wrote during James's reign, "Macbeth" most clearly reflects the playwright's relationship with the sovereign.

Did Cinderella live happily ever after? One might think so until you look more closely at the hidden messages in beloved fairy tales. In Cinderella Didn't Live Happily Ever After, fairy tales are analyzed in terms of the underlying messages about marriage, agency, power, suffering, and good versus evil, with a focus on how male and female characters differ in each of these areas. The analysis is a data-driven approach that provides clear evidence for the hidden messages in these beloved tales. The end conclusion is not whether fairy tales are good or bad but rather what messages they ...

We are what we read, according to Robert DiYanni. Reading may delight us or move us; we may read for instruction or inspiration. But more than this, in reading we discover ourselves. We gain access to the lives of others, explore the limitless possibilities of human existence, develop our understanding of the world around us, and find respite from the hectic demands of everyday life. In You Are What You Read, DiYanni provides a practical guide that shows how we can increase the benefits and pleasures of reading literature by becoming more skillful and engaged readers.

What if every possible book already existed? What if truth, falsehood, wisdom, and nonsense were all hidden in an infinite library that stretched forever? Jorge Luis Borges’ short story The Library of Babel has fascinated readers for generations, offering one of the most haunting metaphors for infinity, language, and the search for meaning. In Infinite Meaning: Exploring the Philosophical Ideas Found in Borges’ Library of Babel, The Practical Atlas takes readers on a profound journey through the philosophical questions raised by this timeless vision. Across ten engaging chapters, this ...

"The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark" is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. Hamlet is Shakespeare's longest play and among the most powerful and influential tragedies in English literature, with a story capable of "seemingly endless retelling and adaptation by others." The play seems to have been one of Shakespeare's most popular works during his lifetime and still ranks among his most-performed. It has inspired writers from Goethe and Dickens to Joyce and Murdoch, and has been described as "the world's most-filmed story after Cinderella".